William M. Hart (1823 to 1894)
William Hart was born in Paisley, Scotland on March 31, 1823, brother of two other well-known painters, James McDougal Hart and Julie Hart Beers. The Hart family moved to Albany, New York in 1831 where William became an apprentice to a carriage maker painting panel decorations before becoming a portrait painter at the age of 18. In the late 1830′s he turned to landscape paintings and became known for serene, bucolic, paintings with smooth finely executed brushwork. Hart became a frequent exhibitor in New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and Washington.
He was made an associate of the National Academy in 1853 and Academician in 1859 where pupils included Homer Martin and Lemuel Miles. Hart was the first president of the Brooklyn academy of Design and founder and three-term president of the American Watercolor Society. One of his best-known works is “The Golden Hour”, at one time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and now privately owned. He died on June 17, 1894 in Mount Vernon, New York.